James D. Harrison II

AOE Advisory Board

James Harrison is currently the Division Director for SEA 05D3, the Expeditionary Warfare Ship Division. In this role he works closely with his SDM’s and their teams to provide Naval Technical Authority support to for all new construction expeditionary warfare (amphibious) ship programs. James authored a paper on the history of Amphibious Ship Design for publication in ANSE Naval Engineers Journal.

James was the T-AKE Ship Design Manager (SDM) from 2007-2010, during which time seven T-AKE were delivered to the US Navy. Some of the major technical issues resolved while he was T-AKE SDM included flight deck AFFF performance, potable water quality, emergency fire pump performance and freeze/chill cargo hold insulation.

From 2004 to 2007, James was the SDM for ONR Programs, including SEA FIGHTER & E-Craft. He served as SDM for the SEA FIGHTER through construction, delivery and operations, and for the ONR E-Craft through concept design, feasibility design and start of construction. James defined and approved, the Safe Operating Envelope for the SEA FIGHTER, based on computational analysis and model test data.

James was a Ship Concept Engineer in SEA 05D1 from 1998 to 2004, where he developed several ship concepts including the 40 knot Expeditionary Fleet, Future Cruiser, Corsair CVL, Mission Adaptive Surface Combatant (MASC) and Unmanned Vehicle Combatant. He also supported the USCG Deepwater Program during feasibility design as a member of the Deepwater Surface Technical Action Team. While working in SEA 05D1, he served as NAVSEA US/UK Exchange Scientist from 2001 to 2003, working for the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Ship Safety Management Office (SSMO).

From 1996 to 1998, James worked in SEA 03H1 (General Arrangements and Habitability), where he supported the LPD-17 program for General Arrangements and Habitability. James started his career with US Navy at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and worked in Surface Ship Structures Branch from 1991-1996. He performed Finite Element Model and manual calculations for structural installations including calculations for shock and blast, and developed structural SHIPALT packages for LHD, LHA, CVN and CGN class vessels.